Friday, December 22, 2006

Catching Up

I keep meaning to say something about the Dodgers moving spring training to Arizona (also via dodgers.com), a deal which now appears to have state blessing. One problem remains the remainder of the Chisox's lease, which runs through 2012 and contains a clause that the Sox must find a suitable replacement team in the event they vacate the facility. That may be tough, and it's possible the Dodgers could end up going forward on a facility by themselves in the meantime. Nonetheless, I can only say good things about this, and look forward to the day the Dodgers join the Cactus League.

This is really overdue, and I don't think I'm going to give it the space it really deserves, but there were a couple words I wanted to say about Kevin Modesti's Dec. 19 column naming Ned Colletti Sportsperson of the Year. (Hey, guys, how about coming up with a less clumsy title?) While it is strictly true that "signing known quantities" led to a postseason berth, it also meant stopgaps like an injury-prone Nomar Garciaparra, garbage-time pitchers like Mark Hendrickson and Aaron Sele, and non-contributors like Bill Mueller, while giving away guys like the formerly highly-rated Joel Guzman, Edwin Jackson, and Chuck Tiffany for junk like Lance Carter and Danys Baez. While it's true that the Dodgers didn't let any of their top-rated prospects disappear, it's also true that Colletti has an alarming tendency to eat up farm system depth. Somebody has to get awards like this, but it's disheartening to see Modesti use the Baseball America "Organization of the Year" award — mainly earned on the shoulders of Logan White — as a prop to justify it.

Except for Ryan Howard, it's hard to find a batter with a K rate as high as Wood's has been in the minor leagues who has been successful in the majors. Of the five sort-of comps listed in Constancio's article (none of which are really good comps for Wood, as Costancio admits), only Derrek Lee has had consistent success in the majors, and even he's really had just one great year (2004). Hinske and Craig Wilson have been disappointing (at least to statheads - it's not clear that their teams ever held them in the same esteem), Garcia never got past AAA, and Guzman was definitely overmatched at AAA this year and is looking less and less like a real prospect.

And then there's today's Times piece about a proposed Todd Helton trade to the Angels for a package of who-knows-who, but usually listeds include Casey Kotchman, Jeff Mathis, and Erick Aybar. Helton has a full no-trade clause in his contract, but his agent says neither he nor Helton have been asked to make the jump. Prediction: this stays on the pages of the newspapers and goes nowhere. It would be a catastrophic deal if it goes down as advertised, and maybe even if the Angels get him for Aybar and salary relief alone.

I'm convinced that the Times is just making this whole thing up. The Angels aren't interested in Helton, not if they (a) have to pay him, and (b) they have to give up something other than a minor prospect. I'm sure they were contacted by Colorado, but I'm just as sure that they took the call as a courtesy only.